Camera battery lifespan

[danielyamseng]

I was wondering how's the long does atypical camera batteries can last before it's due for replacement.

I notice that for my laptop batteries, no matter how I take care of them, it's average lifespan is just 1 year++.

[MT Stringer]

I have three BP-511a that I've had for over two years. No problem with any of them.
Mike

[RDKirk]

www.batteryuniversity.com is the best education on rechargeable batteries on the web. Isadore Buchmann is president of Cadex Corp, a Canadian company that makes battery analyzers and battery rechargers for industry and military. Notice, he does not make batteries, so he has no biases about types or brands, but he makes the equipment that knows all about them. He also writes lucidly for the layman.

There are a couple of points about Li-Ion batteries:

1. They have a span of usefulness that runs from 24-36 months after manufacture if they have gotten good care.

2. Heat is their number one enemy. That's mostly what kills them early in laptops, especially if you have a habit of using your laptop on you lap. This is where those laptop coolers and spacers actually do make a difference.

While they don't need the close maintenance of a nickel-based battery, there are a couple of things that can make a bit of difference in their lifespan.

They don't have memory, which means putting them back on a recharger after slight use doesn't cause a memory problem.

However, charging always heats them a bit, and heat is their enemy. For that reason, you don't want to charge them up to 100% unless you know you need to, and you don't want to charge them when they don't really need it.

There are some laptops that you can set for maximum charge point and the point at which it will begin recharging. For instance, I have my Thinkpad set to begin recharging only when the battery drops to 30% and to charge only up to 95%.

As you probably know, when the Canon battery charger shows "charged" (the steady red light), it's not really up to 100%...Canon advises leaving it on the charger for another hour to get it all the way to 100%. However, if know you're not going to need 100% before your next opportunity to recharge, it would be a good idea to take the battery off the charger as soon as the light goes constant.

[danielyamseng]

RDKirk, that's for the knowledge. I guess maybe that's why my laptop battery has a shortlife span.

But then I've tried to take off the laptop battery when I'm using an AC power, but still the lifespan won't extend that much(Probably it'd goes slightly longer than I never take if off after fully recharge/using AC power)

How's your laptop battery lifespan?

Normally I'd leave the camera battery charge overnight, assuming the modern charger has a cut off features.

But on the next day I still could feel the battery still warm instead of cool. Maybe for those who stay in a all time cool country their batteries could last longer :-)